Chapter 3

I see a flash of blond and a familiar face.

“Ethan?” I say in surprise.

“Wait what?” asks Martha “Who’s Michael?”

“Never mind not now,” I reply “we have to get out of here.”

We run side by side up the rocky path, I look up and almost get dizzy looking at the huge spiral path leading up to the top of god knows where.

“This isn’t going to work Martha we have to find another way,” I say hurriedly “At this rate my grandma could catch us.”

“Wait!” replies Martha “over there a stable, we can get horses.”

Following Martha I run to the stable a squat building smelling of horse dung and the familiar smell of hay.

“Wait here,” I whisper to Martha “If I’m not back in 5 come and get me.”

I run inside and head towards a tall black horse, I unlatch the gate and slip inside the pen. I start to lead the horse out when I hear voices. I stand still not daring to move an inch when suddenly the pen door swings open and a legionary guard walks in.

“Aha!” yells the guard “I found on-”

I quickly knee him in the stomach and he doubles over in pain. I quickly grab one of his maces (Legionnaires always have several for seem reason) and hit him on the head as hard as I can. The resounding clang is not unlike that of a church bell as the maces smashes into the legionnaires plumed helmet. The guard crumples to the ground out cold.

Grabbing the horse I run to the next horse leading ut a beautiful chestnut horse. Pulling both horses I run towards the door only to see a guard step out from behind the door.

“Ahhhh!” the guard yells “He’s stealing horses.”

The guard draws his longsword and charges me as I momentarily wonder why I didn’t keep the other guards mace. Deftly dodging his first swing I dance around the guard as If I were a fly and he was an elephant. He even roars like one I think charging him. The guard is startled by my sudden bravery and pauses, I take advantage of his momentary lapse and slam into his chest with my shoulder. The guard staggers back and I hit him with a hard right hook, he grunts and falls to the ground. I give him a kick for good measure before grabbing the horses again and running outside.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Hurry over here,” says a voice from the right “And ditch the horses they won’t fit.”

“Huh?” I say confused I recognize that voice.

“Oh just come,” I hear Martha’s voice call out.

“Where are you?” I reply warily.

“Just in Here slip in between these two boards,” Says Martha “But hurry we're running out of time Jake says we have about 5 minutes before they send out a search squad”

Confused I slipped inside to see Martha standing with mr redhead and two other men one I assume to be Jake is a stout man with a curly brown beard and dark grey eyes and the other…

“Michael?” Is that you I ask confused “What are you doing here and why are you dressed like a legionary?”

Michael is about six feet tall and has blond hair his old weathered face is stony cold from his chin to his hawk like nose.

“Not here, we have to move before the next patrol comes,” Michael replies in a low gruff voice.

We run quickly down a series of tunnels that seem like they were carved out by a team of miners. The walls are jagged and uneven and the roof slopes up and down making hard to run at a steady pace. The floor has large rocks and in some places water drips down forming small pools. The rock is dark grey and looks foreboding with its shadows and only the flicker of a singular torch held by Michael that lights the way to freedom. We emerge out onto a stretch of desert that seems to go for miles. When I look behind us I get dizzy from the spiraling staircase that funnels down to a now small looking cluster buildings.

“Woaah, where are we?” I ask trying to fight the strong gusts of wind that make the sand fly like water.

“We are on the edge of the Sahathryn desert,” I hear Michael yell above the wind. “Our goal is to trek across this six mile swath of desert so we can reach the crystal wastelands by nightfall.

“What!” The redhead cries out “We’ll die there everyone knows that there are monsters there and all sorts of other evils.”

“Oh be quiet,” says Ryan “If you know how to it is possible to survive.”

“If?” yells the redhead “were going to die here!”