As the blood haze began to lift, Leonce moved silently towards the cart where Aelizabeth remained hogtied. She looked towards him, more out of fear than of awe. She’d just heard such a brutal display of skill that she’d never witnessed before… and quite literally, given how she was blindfolded. In her mind, she couldn’t help but ask herself if a couple of madmen had just saved her and how to utilise their natural gifts for murder. But, as she rubbed off the blindfold, she was fast to see that it was the two brothers: Leonce and Loup. Part of her said she could trust the brothers; even as scary as they were, given the carnage of the scene, they didn’t give off the aura of two murderous killers or veteran soldiers. Instead, it seemed more like something inside them awoke in that spur of the moment. She wasn’t sure what it was, and neither did Leonce or Loup.

After Leonce had cut free her bonds, she swiftly pulled free her gag and spat out the excess saliva that had built up in her mouth before looking up at the blond, who stepped back only to see him slump down against a tree. Both brothers seemed exhausted, and rightfully so after a fight like that. But, her attention was focused more on Leonce at the moment as he was the closest to her in that moment.

Leonce meanwhile felt tired and breathless. It felt like every muscle in his body was on fire. He had to calm down – no, he needed to calm down. Glancing over at Loup, he noticed his younger brother was already going through the motions, taking a deep breath in, and letting it all out. Leonce followed suit. Taking a deep breath in and out. Both began to calm down and relax, but in that state, exhaustion began to rear its ugly head.

Aelizabeth came rushing towards him, grabbing a canteen from her pack that had been discarded in the fight, “Here, drink.”

Leonce took the offered canteen, downing the entire thing in seconds as if he’d been without water for days.

With their attention focused on each other, Loup took a moment to separate himself for a moment, making a move into the thick brush, before nearly falling into a tree, his breathing becoming hard as though he were hyperventilating. Twisting around, he slumped back against the tree, letting his weight fall onto the root protruding from the knoll. Panting and breathing were difficult to do. His grip tightened around the musket barrel in his hands, his knuckles going white with the sheer force of his grip. A groan of metal and the cracking of wood suddenly saw Loup visibly calm. Blinking, he looked around, sweat beading down his face as though waking from a bad nightmare. Swallowing, he paused a moment when he felt a stinging sensation from his hands, prompting him to glance down and see a small trail of blood seeping down the length of the crushed musket barrel. Pulling his hands away, he let the lump of metal and wood fall before he examined his hands, noting the small puncture wounds on his palms. Peering down at the ruined weapon, he waged it was the cracked wood that did the damage to his hands, but as he examined his fingers, he noted how his nails seemed… “Longer?”

It was more a statement of confusion than surprise. His nails not only seemed slightly longer but sharper, more claw-esque. He wasn’t sure why or how they got like that, but he didn’t want to think about it now. His mind quickly returned to his brother, and having calmed down after a moment of panic, he pushed himself up and emerged from the brush once more, seeing Aelizabeth care for Leonce. Letting out a sigh of relief, Loup was sure his brother was fine at that moment at least, but for now, he needed a new weapon. As he reached down, his entire body began to hurt, as though he had the most intense workout he’d ever done. Gritting his teeth, he fought through the pain to grab one of the discarded muskets and an ammo bag.

While Loup went through the motions of grabbing all the ammo he could find, Aelizabeth gave Leonce a once over, ensuring he wasn’t wounded. She hadn’t seen what had happened, but the bloody scene, she was sure he was likely wounded. Much to her surprise, he was fine. Just sore and exhausted. Aelizabeth didn’t know what to say in that moment.

“Well, looks like you’re fine. No wounds I could find, but, I recommend you take a moment to rest here. In the meantime, I’m going to go look through that man’s bag to see who these men were and why they were trying to kidnap me,” Aelizabeth told Leonce, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before moving towards the dead officer.

She quickly found the dead man’s bag. A splattering of blood on the dark chocolate-coloured leather seemed not to harm the contents within. Pulling out a few papers and letters, the woman began to examine each, trying to see what orders these men were acting upon. Aelizabeth knew who and why they came for her, but not how they managed to track her down to this place. She was supposed to be safe travelling along with the Iron Shield. Before long, she found her answer. Amongst the letters was one velvet letter stamped with the signet of Duke Brihan von Gerlt. A man deemed too ambitious and power-hungry by all within the Kingdom. However, given his power and connections, not even the King could move against him without proper proof and support from the other factions within Parliament.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Biting her bottom lip, she began to chew the skin out of habit before Leonce’s voice snapped her back from her thoughts.

“What did you find?” Leonce asked, still leaning against the tree, his sea blue eyes seemingly having a strange gold hue to them.

As she stared at him, she quickly turned away and back to the report, “N-nothing. Just some slavers looking for a quick score. Some piece of shit noble apparently hired them to kidnap me. Likely after catching a glimpse of me somewhere down south, I imagine.”

“Well, at least you know you’re popular,” Leonce joked, prompting Aelizabeth to roll her eyes and smile.

“As I’m sure you will be too.”

“Of course!”

Loup stayed silent as he limped towards them both, only to sit down beside his brother, using his newfound musket as a walking stick.

As the two brothers took a moment to rest and recoup, Aelizabeth stowed the other letters to examine for any other valuable intel, before getting up to take care of her former team. Iron Shield had been wiped out, and its members lay dead alongside their killers. She felt upset in that moment, but didn’t want to break down here. She couldn’t. There was too much that had happened, and as she looked over at the brothers, she began to frown. It was weird to her how two young men the same age as she had been able to do what veteran adventurers failed to do. They were armed only with loaned-out weapons, and yet they managed to do more damage with those than the better-quality gear she and Iron Shield had. It annoyed her if she was honest with herself. But she knew there was no point in complaining about it. Instead, after grabbing the tags of each of her fallen teammates, she headed back to the officer, grabbed the sabre and hilt, and passed it to Leonce.

“Here,” She said flatly, all but thrusting the officer sabre into his hands.

Leonce examined the blade, noting it was far superior in quality than the rapier he used. A glance down at the loaned-out blade told him the rapier would likely snap in another engagement, given how he’d used the blade in the past day and a half. As he examined the sabre, he noted the weight, as it had a heavier tip, giving it more power when swung. The gold plated hand guard on the front bore a strange emblem though, one he swore he saw before. He looked up to ask Aelizabeth about it, but as she tossed her kit into the carriage he doubted she wanted to focus on the killers of her friends longer than necessary. Plus, as far as he’d read in the libraries and from what he’d heard from travelling merchants, it wasn’t uncommon for slavers to have their own private forces. So, with a small shrug, Leonce dismissed the worry aside for now.

“So, what’s next for you?” Loup asked before Leonce.

Aelizabeth paused a moment, looking up into the foliage of the trees as if in thought, “Continue on my way I suppose.”

Both brothers looked at one another, a little skeptical.

“Really? You’re just gonna keep going, despite slavers chasing after you?” Leonce replied with a tone that suggested she was crazy for even considering such.

It was then that she turned to face them both, a predatory slash of a grin across her beautiful features before replying, “Who said I was going alone?”

“Huh?”

“You two. I’ll be going with you two.”

“And who said we’re going with you? We hardly know you, much less care enough to act as bodyguards,” Loup shot back.

Leonce motioned for his brother for calm, “No, wait… this – this might work actually.”

Loup looked at him, confused, “In what way?”

“Think about it my dear little brother! Didn’t we both want a way to get out of Oakenhart? This is our chance! Ha! Of course we’ll do it!” Leonce answered, his own excitement at the prospect of leaving and getting closer to Aelizabeth overshadowing his commonsense.

His younger brother meanwhile harboured his usual healthy distrust of strangers, but he trusted his brother. So, with a heavy sigh, he nodded in agreement.

“Fine… but if this gets us into trouble, I’m going to be very, very pissed off,” Loup growled.

Leonce shot his brother a cheeky grin, “You know it always does.”

Loup rolled his eyes, knowing his brother wasn’t taking his worry into consideration, but still, if there was one positive thing to take away from all this, it was the fact they were leaving Oakenhart.

“So, if neither of you have anything else to say, jump onto the back and lets go. I’ll steer the cart,” Aelizabeth said, motioning for the two to climb into the back of the cart.

Both brothers looked back towards home once more. They knew they’d return one day, but not for a good while. For their lives outside home started now. Climbing into the back, the two got as comfortable as they could in a cart.

As Aelizabeth climbed aboard the cart, she paused a moment to glance back at the two, noting they only had their weapons and clothes on their back and nothing else, “Wait, is that all you have?”

Loup nodded, “Mhm. Besides all you see on us, we got nothing. We were originally going to buy our stuff at the general store,” Loup answered calmly as he reached out and grabbed one of the rucksacks on the cart, “Not that we need to worry anymore. We have these.”

She couldn’t argue with that, and with a slight shrug, she snapped the reigns and spurred the horses on. As the cart lurched forward, both brothers looked at one another, both feeling the same sensation as the other – fear and excitement. While the adventurering job wasn’t part of their dream, leaving their hometown was. They were now on their way to a new beginning, and hopefully a life filled with wonder, awe, and excitement.