Aaron woke up with a splitting headache. This was not the kind of headache that he had after drinking wine at a banquet all night. After consideration, this was the kind of headache that happened when the weapons instructor he had was teaching him to avoid a miscast even when being struck on the head. As he winced he recalled the other thing he was taught: namely to pretend to still be unconscious if you don’t remember why you were knocked out in the first place. Keeping his eyes closed he strained his hearing to figure out what was around him.
“Psst, your breathing changed. Might as well wake up before they get insulted by your atrocious acting.”
Aaron opened his eyes to find himself tied to a tree, and just next to him was a person similarly bound and hitched to another tree nearby. It was a young looking and surprisingly cheerful face, given the condition they found themselves in. There was also a fire and a couple of tarps tied to provide some shelter to whomever owned the camp. “Where are we,” he asked curiously?
“Now now, there’s no reason not to follow courtesies. I’m Brendan, from the western mountains, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” The young man smiled at Aaron, still ignoring the whole being captured and tied to a tree.
“Um, I’m Aaron. Forgive me, but this is the first time I’ve been captured and woken up tied up to a tree. My friends call me Light, and if meeting while being prisoners at the same time doesn’t qualify someone as a friend, nothing would.” Aaron, not entirely relaxed, decided it best to become friends and work together. However, he was unable to keep himself from asking again: “So, does that mean you do know where we are?”
Brendan nodded. “Yep, I’m an Initiate, so naturally I’d keep track of the nearby lands. I was on my way to the capitol to start my training and saw a fire in the woods. Wound up walking right into this bandit camp.” He shrugged and shook his head, “Anyway, I’m guessing you travel by road. We’re about a day from the capitol and maybe a ten minute stroll north of the main road.
Aaron thought to himself for a moment. “You said bandits, but where are they?”
Brendan chuckled, “If you think for a moment, it’d be obvious they’re off being bandits. I’m guessing they’ll come back tonight. I was figuring on waiting until they’re all here before escaping, so we don’t run into any of them by accident on the way out.”
“Escape? You don’t think it’d be easier to escape now while no one’s watching?”
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Brendan shook his head. “Nope, for a couple reasons. First of all, there probably is someone who has at least a view of this camp and is scouting around. We can talk quietly like this, but actually getting away without someone missing our presence is unlikely. Secondly, I’m particularly skilled at training animals, and they never caught sight of my falcon. She can tear apart these ropes before anyone knows what’s happening and I doubt these fellows are more adept at moving through the woods than I am.”
Aaron nodded, “I suppose there’s some logic in that. On another note, I don’t suppose you know where our things are?”
“Nope, sadly not. I figured once they come back we’ll see where they put any new stuff. Failing that, we can just ask them and maybe they’ll tell us.”
“Hah, like that’s going to happen. Still, they haven’t really hurt us, so it’s unlikely just asking is going to cause us any issues. Still, depending on the number of bandits, I’d rather kill or capture them than simply escape.” Aaron smiled wryly, “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help me with that? It’s kind of my duty to do so.”
Brendan shook his head, “I figure we hit them hard once to make them cautious and then we retreat. It may be your duty to eliminate illegal forces like this, but I’m assuming you have some flexibility in how you go about it. For example, informing the local lord and letting him send troops? I’m not too familiar with how this stuff works, but I know that us druids get awfully offended when someone foreign to our land takes action without giving us the opportunity to handle the responsibilities of our territories.”
Aaron blinked a few times at Brendan. “You know, I never thought of that. We’re trained to carry the responsibilities of executing high justice when needed, but now that I think about it, I’ve always been trained to rely on myself to take action if at all possible.”
“Well, I hope you take a bit of time to think about how you carry out your duties. I’ve always been taught that laws exist to highlight areas where you should take further consideration before acting. There’s a penalty associated with every law, and sometimes risking the penalty is still worth it. Just the same, the path of least resistance in arriving at your goal is just as important.” Brendan looked down a bit embarrassed, “At least, that’s what my master always told me.”
Aaron gaped at Brendan, “You already have a master? Why are you going by yourself to the capitol for training then? Isn’t he going to teach you?”
Brendan just shrugged, “He has taught me, and now the lesson he wants me to learn is how people live outside the forest.” He chuckled a bit with his toothy grin coming back out, “Now I’ve learned about bandits and I’ve not even arrived. I guess I’m an overachiever.”
Suddenly, the harsh sound of a bird called out nearby causing Brendan to sit up straighter. “That’s my girl, apparently the bandits are almost back.” He turned to face the entrance to the little campground where the faint sounds of feet and voices could just barely be made out.