“What are we even doing here, Canadine?”

Dari and Canadine walked through a maze of tents. It had been a year since they joined the mercenary group and now Dari was getting restless.

Canadine raised his brow at Dari’s question, “What do you mean?”

“I mean Canadine what are we actually doing here? I understand why we joined them, really I do, but what are we accomplishing by staying here? When I left Rende with you I was under the impression that we were pursuing that monster, but all we’ve done is almost starve and then join this group. Now we're just twiddling our thumbs.”

Canadine shook his head, “Yes, we almost starved. Starved Dari. Do you want to go back to that? Besides, Gralt hasn’t complained at all since they took us in.”

Dari threw his arms into the air, “Gralt will go along with anything we do! He wasn’t even supposed to be here. I can’t imagine what my mom’s doing now.”

Canadine gave a light chuckle, “So your homesick is that it. Go on then I won’t stop you from leaving, but I’ll do what needs to be done.”

Dari shook his head in frustration, “No that’s not the point, Canadine, I can’t go back now it would be an embarrassment. Imagine what Leren would say. But it would also be an embarrassment if we don’t follow through on what we set out to do.”

“We are following through, we just need to wait a little longer trust me.”

Dari grabbed Canadine’s shoulder, stopping him in his tracks, “Look I don’t know much about your relationship with Servalo, but you can’t let it hold us back.”

Canadine slapped away Dari’s hand, “It's not holding me back. I need him, Dari. We could barely defend ourselves when we first left home but now look at us. Though we're still not ready. We need to get better. If we leave now we’re destined for failure.”

Dari jabbed his finger in Canadine’s face, “It’s been a whole year, we can look out for ourselves fine. You're staying for some other reason entirely, and you better find out why soon. I’m getting tired of wasting our time here.”

Dari stomped off with his last words, going to gamble or steal most likely, he always did either of the two when he was upset.

Canadine sighed and continued to his destination. Servalo would be waiting for him and he didn’t want to disappoint.

Servalo sat a little ways from the camp on a tree stump, sharpening his sword, “You’re late.” he said.

He was a tall and lanky man. His balding head contrasted the myriad of scars on his face as well as his piercing gaze.

Canadine grabbed his axe from his back, “Sorry, Dari was concerned about something.”

Servalo walked to Canadine and readied his sword stance, “What about?” He had a serious and solemn sound to his voice.

Canadine swung his axe at Servalo, “He thinks we’re wasting our time here.”

Servalo easily danced around the swing, “Well? Are you?”

“Of course not. We’re training aren’t we.”

Servalo elbowed Canadine in the jaw, “Apparently not enough.”

Canadine was sent to the ground, and rubbed his jaw, “I guess I should stay longer then.”

Servalo’s eyes took on an animalistic look, “Is that so.” His voice was cold as ice.

He swung his sword, spraying Canadine’s blood across the glass. Canadine clasped the side of his cheek in shock, but he didn’t have much time to react as another slash came at him.

Canadine jumped back, but Servalo followed him, swinging his sword. Canadine nearly blocked the blow with the shaft of his axe.

Canadine glared at Servalo, but he simply returned an apathetic stare.

Canadine shoved Servalo back with a guttural yell and swung his axe at his opponent. Servalo tried to dance around it, but Canadine saw this and changed the direction of his strike midway. Servalo’s eyes widened in shock as he nearly brought his blade up. His footing was weak though so he was sent falling onto his back.

Canadine’s deep breaths were suddenly juxtaposed by a hearty laugh.

Servalo started to stand, dusting himself off, “See I knew you had it in you. The only question I have is why you haven’t done this before.”

Canadine continued to pant and maintained his glare, prompting Servalo to furrow his brow, “Kid you gotta do something about that anger of yours. Anger like that has killed some of my friends.”

Canadine clenched his fist and took deep breaths, “Sorry I didn’t mean…”

“Oh, you meant it alright. The only question I have is why you’ve been pulling ya punches this entire time.”

Canadine didn’t answer.

Servalo gave out a sigh, and placed his hand on Canadine’s shoulders, “Kid I’m not your papa.”

Canadine looked towards the ground, “I know that…”

“Kid, how old are you now?”

“Thirteen”

Servalo gave out a whistle, “kid just think about it. You're thirteen kids yet you're here by choice, and you want to stay. Do you know how many people here were forced into the mercenary game? Do you?”

Canadine slowly nodded

“Maybe you should listen to your friend then, or at least go home.”

“I don’t have one.”

“Then go find one because kid this ain’t no home,” Servalo started off, but came to a stop and turned back, “And don’t go tryin to find the guy who destroyed your old one.”

The moon was overhead and Canadine sat on the ground behind Dari who counted his recent winnings, “How did training go?”

Canadine didn’t respond as he looked into the fire in front of them.

“At least that about what I said?”

Again no response

Dari gave a sigh and went back to his winnings.

Shortly after a commotion came from the other side of the camp. Dari immediately stood up and stretched, “Looks like another patron. Might as well got check it out

Canadine wordlessly followed behind him. When they got to the entrance of the camp they spotted an ornate carriage and from it came a beautiful woman in a green silk dress and hair of fire. The woman had a haughty atmosphere to her as she held her hair high and didn’t even glance at Servalo as he tried to talk to her. Though that was in contrast to the girl that looked to be a year older than the two boys with her head hung low.

A broad grin broke out on Dari’s face, “Looks like a great payday for you don't you think. Maybe I will convince her to take her with us when she leaves. What do you think?”

Canadine barely heard him. His limbs were filled with a deep tiredness. He needed to lay down and think about the things that Servalo said.

Canadine was shaken awake and he instinctively shoved the person away from himself.

“Sorry for that Canadine, but I need your help.” A small voice came from the darkness.

Canadine’s head was still hazy from waking up, “Gralt? What do you want? What time is it?”

“That doesn’t matter, just come with me.”

Canadine consider Gralt and then went back to bed. Though Gralt shook him even more violently.

“Gralt! Get off me you smell like horses.”

“Not until you come with me.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Fine…fine…I’ll come.”

“Oh and bring your axe and change.”

Canadine rubbed his eyelids, “Why?”

“Just do it, please.”

Canadine got dressed and followed Gralt who held a torch in his hand. The boy still had a shaved head even though his mother was the one who made him do it before. Canadine guessed he tried to keep a piece of home with him at all times.

The pair stopped at a wagon on the outskirts of the camp with a sheet that covered its cargo.

Gralt turned back to Canadine with a nervous smile, “Promise not to say anything.”

Canadine responded with an irritated look.”

Gralt gave a small nod and lifted the sheet, revealing two girls.

One was the girl that had trailed behind the women who arrived before. In Gralt’s torch light her long slender face with her brown hazelnut hair and eyes. The other girl had blonde hair that was so light that it could be mistaken for white in a certain light and she held a piercing star of deep gray eyes. She lay immobile on what looked like a stretcher.

Canadine looked from the girls to Gralt, still having not fully woken up, “What is this Gralt?”

Gralt gave a proud smile, “We’re gonna help them get out of here.”

“We’ll pay you for your time. I promise you won’t regret it,” the girl with the hazelnut hair said.

Canadine considered her and held his finger up, “Just give us a minute to talk please.”

The girls nodded and Gralt let the sheet fall.

“Gralt what are you doing!” Canadine said in a hushed tone

“They needed help, Canadine, and I couldn’t refuse.”

“So they came up to you and asked for help?”

“Well…” An awkward smile appeared on Gralt’s face.

Dari came running up behind them with a sack filled to the brim with stuff, “Are we ready to go. Oh! Canadine you're here. I’m glad you came to your senses. Now we can…”

Canadine lifted the sheet revealing the girls in the wagon, prompting Dari to drop his sack, “Oh hello there, can you please give us a minute.”

Once Canadine let go of the sheet, Dari pointed at it, “Who are they, Canadine! Why did you bring them?”

Canadine put his hands up defensively, “I didn’t bring them Gralt did. I didn’t even know they were here until a minute ago.”

A look of pure shock came to Dari’s face, “Graaalt!? Without telling us? Why would he…” Dari paused and made his way to the sheet and lifted it once again

The girl with hazelnut eyes looked very irritated by the situation, “What is it now!”

Dari looked at her then back to Gralt, “Oh…oh, sorry about that, just give us a few more seconds.”

He let the sheet fall back down then slowly walked to Gralt and placed his hands on his shoulders, “Gralt…we are not going to go out of our way to help girls that we do not know BECAUSE YOU WANT A GIRLFRIEND!”

Gralt’s started to wave frantically, “Why not. You wanted to leave anyway. Why not take them with us.”

“Because it looks like we’re kidnapping them, Gralt!”

The two continued their argument as Canadine slowly lifted the sheet once again, and was met by the two girls glaring at them.

“We are running out of time, Canadine.” The girl with the hazelnut eyes said.

“I’m sorry…”

“Selari. My name's Selari.”

Canadine looked at the girl on the stretcher, “and you are?”

The blonde-haired girl spoke through pained breaths, “Ri..ma”

“Great, well I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to talk this through. Just leaving out of nowhere like this is…”

Selari rejected Canadine’s words, “Why would you hesitate to leave? I doubt there’s anything for you here. Just look how dirty everything is.”

“Yeah? And where do you two plan on going?”

Selari shrugged, “Anywhere that my teacher isn’t.”

Canadine scratched the back of his head, “Oh yeah that sounds like a risk on our part. Why are you running from your teacher anyway?”

Selari gestured to Rami, “She’s the reason why Rami’s like this. I had to draw the line at some point, and my teacher’s curiosity has robbed so many things from so many others.”

“Wait, you don’t mean that…” suddenly a cry of voices erupted from the camp.

Canadine spun to see the source, but his hand was caught by Rima, “Please don’t leave us.”

Canadine frantically thought of his options if he didn’t hand the girls over there would be grave consequences for the three boys. Though he also thought about what Servalo said and following these girls would be a great start.

Canadine gripped Rima’s hand in his, “Don’t worry I’ll never say no to a plea for help.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Rima let go and Canadine rushed to Dari and Gralt who were fixed in place by the cries from the camp, “Dari, Gralt, we’re going, get your things we don’t have much time.”

Dari threw his hands into the hair, “What do you mean there's still more to talk about…”

“Well time for that is over, and now it's time to go. It's what you wanted in the first place isn't it?”

Dari ran for his sack, “But not under these circumstances!”

Gralt jumped onto the driver seat of the wagon giddy from excitement, “I knew you guys would go along with it.

Dari shoved his sack into the wagon, much to the girl's frustration, “Yeah, yeah, just make sure we get out of here unscathed.”

As Canadine started to jump into the wagon an arrow narrowly missed him and stuck into the wagon. He had to stare at it for a while to recover from the shock, “DRIVE GRALT! DRIVE!!”

When he jumped into the wagon he noticed a small piece of paper attached to the arrow's shaft. As the wagon pulled forward with Gralt’s shouts Canadine read the letter:

Hey kid I see you took my advice, though I can’t say I would have preferred it to happen like this. Just gonna let you know that I’m sending some men after you, not the amount that I should, but they won’t treat you guys any differently from other targets, so don’t be pulling your punches alright?

Canadine laid back on the wagon floor and let out a sigh of relief. At least he got something out of staying here, getting away shouldn’t be too hard.

Selari noticed the note, “What is it?”

He waved his hand, “Don’t worry the boss just said that he won’t send many men after us, so we should be fine.”

“I thought you said he wouldn’t send many men!” Selari called back.

“Well, I guess he doesn’t consider this many that much!” Canadine rebutted.

“Not many men my ass!” Dari called out to no one in particular.

The wagon was surrounded by twenty-five or so men and the sheet that hid the kids was long gone. A constant barrage of arrows went over their heads and stuck themselves into the side of the wagon.

“I can get us out of this just watch me!” Gralt shouted back to them.

Dari tried to stick his head over the side of the wagon, but a near-miss of an arrow sent him back to his cover, “No offense Gralt, but there is no way that’s possible!”

The arrows suddenly stopped, “We’re warning you kids, pull over and hand over the girls. If you do, we'll consider splitting the cut with you, lads.”

Canadine glared at Dari who nodded along with what the man was saying, “No Dari.”

“What else do you plan on doing! There out of the reach of your axe, and one would have to be very stupid for them to come in reach of my glaive.”

Canadine thought about their situation. Even if their men were that close, Dari had one the glaive off a blind traveler, and barely knew how to use it. Dari was right about his axe, too. All that left him was…”

“Hey! Do you two have any way that you can get us out of this?” He looked to Selari, but she was seemingly asleep with her hands folded in her lap.

“You have to be joking,” he said.

Upon seeing this Dari gave a bitter smile and turned to Rima, “I don’t assume that you can do anything for us at the moment?”

“Not…right now…give me…a minute…please.”

Dari threw up his hands and laid down on the wagon.

“What are you doing?” Canadine asked

“Well if you ask me Canadine even if that blonde gets better, we are still royally screwed, so the best thing to do is just give up, which is exactly what I’m gonna do.”

A voice rose from beside the wagon once more, “Okay you give us no choice. To think I actually liked one of you.”

Canadine quickly rose from his cover and dragged Gralt to the back, “Ah shut up everyone liked Gralt.”

The arrows started whizzing by once

Gralt tried to resist, but Canadine was stronger than him by far. Once he was in the back he asked, “Okay what’s the plan…” he scanned the carriage seeing Dari unconcernedly laying around, Selari asleep, and Rima no better than he first saw her, “Oh…”

Canadine’s heart was racing as his reality set in, “Yeah ‘oh’, but at least you trained those horses well enough to go on without you driving.”

“Oh”

“What is it, Gralt. Please tell me you have some sort of idea or…”

Gralt started to scramble to the other side of the carriage, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…” He placed Dari’s sack of goods in front of him.

Canadine glanced across from Gralt, “What are you…” Suddenly he took notice of the tremble in Selari’s hands, which soon spread to her whole body, “Oh.”

Suddenly the floor of the wagon around Selari turned to ice and above her water came together from the atmosphere and solidified into ice. In a short moment, hundreds of ice shards hung over them and most of the wagon was frozen with Canadine moving to the edge of the wagon to avoid the spreading ice.

“What the hell…” The ice shards shot forward in all directions.

The sound of crunching bones, piercing flesh, and screams of pain filled the air as a spring of blood gushed onto the wagon, leaving a trail in its wake.

A desperate mercenary rode to the back of the wagon with his spear ready, “She wanted you alive, but dead will have to do!” His prey was the helpless Rima as she lay on the stretcher.

A clumsily swung blade opened the aggressor's neck. Rami looked up to see Dari standing above her with a glaive, “He was always a bad gambler.”

Rami quickly outstretched her hand upon seeing him.

“What is it?” Dari asked, but the groan of a mercenary behind him answered Dari’s question as he soon fell off his horse.

“See I told you…I just needed a second.” She gritted her teeth, “Hmmm! that really hurt.”

“Okay thanks, but you didn’t need to do that.” Dari nodded.

The wagon slowly slowed down as the rest of the mercenaries retreated.

When it finally came to a stop, Gralt let the sack fall away with a sigh of relief, “I guess we won huh.”

Dari looked back at him with chagrin, “Won? Look at this wagon! It's almost entirely frozen. Hell, we’re lucky none of us were impaled by that ice! What even was that!” Dari tapped the floor of the wagon with his glaive, “Gralt you said nothing about your crush being a witch!”

Gralt’s cheeks turned red as he spun around to Selari, but to his relief, she was snoring sound asleep,” though his eyes once again widened as he turned to Rima.

“I don’t care.” She said with an irritated voice

A groan interrupted the conversation between the three.

Canadine held his shoulder as an ice shard protruded from it.

“Oh shit Canadine!” Dari slid to Canadine and supported him before he fell over, “Gralt get us to the closest town now!”

Canadine’s vision became blurry with the loss of blood, and the last thing he remembered before fainting was Dari’s panicked face as he frantically slapped Canadine’s face to keep him awake.