Lando did not know what to think.
When he got a letter from an unknown sender, he was a little worried. In the letter, it mentioned the fact that he was from the Black nation. Not many knew where he came from, he only ever shared it with his partner, Carson.
It was surprising that the continents of the letter mentioned a job. A very high paying one at that.
There was even a little bit of money given as soon as they accepted the mission. In order to collect it, they would need to go to the nearby tavern and meet their employer.
The job itself was a horrible act. It would possibly lead to hundreds or even thousands of people starving. But it didn't matter that much to Landon. He had already killed dozens of farmers coming back from Carthage and took all of their belongings.
The job was fairly simple, but there were a lot of risks involved. If he did get caught, he would most likely be killed without any chance of surviving.
But the letter mentioned two horses, one of himself and the other of this partner.
The job was to head to the farthest village to the west and start burning. The main goal was to burn all the crops and then, if possible, the houses. There was a bonus for burning the houses. After the first village, move onto the second one. After the second, the third. Repeat until Carthage is the only thing left.
It would certainly be difficult to do all of them in one night, but Lando didn’t need to. He could let his Carson handle half of the villages, and then he would only have to worry about half of them. Each of the villages was around a half a day's walk-off of each other, so with a horse, it would take an hour if they hurried with a horse.
There were a little more than a dozen villages, so each had to worry about six villages not including the village farthest to the west.
If they started an hour or two after the dark, they would have plenty of time to visit each village before the sun rose the next day.
Lando and Carson both agreed to start at the farthest village, work on it together, then Lando would go northeast while Carson would go southeast.
The plan had been working well, they made it to the village farthest to the west after two hours after the sun had set. They came up with a plan: they would burn the crops first, then the houses.
They started a fire and each took a long stick that was still on fire.
They split up so that Lando went to the left side of the village and Carlson went to the right.
It had been going well until they reached half of the crops. They both heard shouting noises coming from the direction of the village. Lando instantly threw the torch way into an unlit part of the field and started to run away.
Carson was a little slow, and it took him a while to finally come up with a reaction. He dropped the torch and turned back and ran. The torch landed on the pathway and continued to burn.
The horses were left behind, a little bit away from the village so that they could catch a break.
Both of them headed away from the farm and into the trees. When they were far enough away that they wouldn't be seen, they started to head towards where the horses were.
They both didn't expect that the villagers would wake up so soon. Burning the farm would be pretty quiet as long the fire didn't spread.
Burning the houses would definitely wake everyone up, but as long as they were quick and let the fire spread on its own, they could get away.
Lando was the first to reach the horses. The campfire was also right next to them, which light up the area.
Lando carefully around the fire to make sure that it was still safe. The fire was hard to see but it was still visible. If someone was looking for it, as long as they were in the right place, they would find it.
'It was not safe to stay here,' thought Lando. The only reason that Lando was still here was that he was waiting for Carson.
Carson was close to the fire that he was, so he should have been here by now. Both the horses were still here, so Carson didn't come here yet.
'Did he get caught already?' Lando thought to himself.
He didn't want to leave him behind but if the villagers did catch him, it was over. There was no way for Lando to break Carson out.
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Lando decided to wait a little bit longer, and if Carson still didn't come, he would take both the horses and not look back. Horses were expensive, so it would be a complete waste to just leave one here.
A minute went by, and Lando finally heard movement in the trees. Lando was behind a tree so that if someone was to come to the fire, they wouldn't be able to easily see him.
Lando watched as the noises were coming closer and closer. It stopped right before it entered the light of the campfire.
Lando waited for a few more seconds and then cleared his throat and stepped forward into the light.
Carson almost pooped his pants when he heard a noise right next to him. He thought that he was caught and was about to run, but he saw Lando and stopped.
Carson took a few deep breaths to calm his heart down and said to Lando, "What do we do now? We can leave now or we can still get the houses."
Everyone in the village was up by now and putting out the fire in the field. They couldn't burn all of the crops but they still had a chance to burn the houses.
Carson didn't know how this would affect their pay but he figured that the houses would increase it by a little bit. They definitely lost money since they couldn't burn the entire farm, but it was fine since they still had a dozen farms.
Lando thought about it for a while and nodded his head.
They both grabbed another stick from the fire and untied the horses from the tree. They would start the fire and run off on their horses to the next village.
They put out the fire by pulling out the individual sticks and stomped on them to put them out.
Lando and Carson got on the horses and started to go towards the village. They were a little bit while away from the village and there were too many trees in their way for them to go any quicker.
They both silently moved forward. Carson was usually the only one that talked while Lando listened, but he was silent this time. The only noises were the horses and the crackling of the fire.
They almost made it all the way to the first houses of the village when Lando stopped his horse. Carson, who was behind him, saw this and stopped his horse as well.
"What's wrong?" Carson asked. He could see Lando looking around them carefully as if he was trying to find something.
"Stay alert," said Lando. He only ever spoke when it was necessary. He couldn't tell exactly what was wrong, but he knew that whatever it was, it was not good.
The crops should still be on fire so the villagers couldn't be back to their houses. If they weren't back, then the village should be empty. There could still be a few people here and there, but they would not be enough to stop Lando and Carson on horses.
Just when Lando was about to think that he was imagining things, there was a sudden movement from the trees around them. Then, multiple shadows jumped toward Lando and Carson.
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"THIEVES ARE HEADED TO THE VILLAGE," Laina shouted with her hands cupped to her mouth.
Around half of the villagers heard Laina. When they looked back and saw who was the one that shouted, most of them went back to what they were doing.
It wasn't that they didn't trust Laina, but that they valued the crops more than the things in their houses. Most of the villagers didn't have much in their houses. The only thing that they valued in there was the food that was kept in them.
Thieves wouldn't steal food. It would be too heavy and, compared to other valuables, it was fairly cheap.
But some people did have valuable things in their homes. Most of them had money that they had been saving up. These were the people that stopped trying to put out the fire and headed to where Laina was.
Enough people were putting the fire out, so it was not spreading. It was only a matter of time before the fire was completely put out.
Six men started to jog towards Laina. If it was true that there were thieves, they had to hurry so that they didn't take anything and escape.
As they got closer to Laina, they saw the outsiders standing next to her. Already, some of the villagers suspected that it was them that started the fire, so none of the six men were happy with them.
When they reached Laina, they stopped running and stared at the two outsiders with hostility. Stratus had gone unnoticed from them.
"Is it true, Laina? Where are they?" asked one of the men.
Laina turned around and pointed towards the flickering light in the distance. It was clearly moving towards the village.
The group of men looked towards where Laina was pointing and found it. It took them a moment to understand that it was moving towards the village, but after they did, they clearly understood what was happening.
They looked towards each other and nodded. They started to run towards the village so that they could intercept the thieves.
"Wait! Can we come with you?" asked Xander. He wanted to join them so that he could prove to Sam that he was correct, and the people did light the crops on fire as a distraction. Sam wanted to find out their purpose, so he, also, wanted to go.
The group of men stopped running and looked towards Xander. It didn't seem like they were the ones that started the fire, and it did look like Laina trusted both of them.
It was also only six of them, and it couldn't hurt getting more people.
They looked towards each other, and one of them spoke up, "Fine, but don't get any ideas," he said.
Satisfied with that answer, Sam and Xander followed behind the men. Laina wanted to follow along with them, but it would be hard for her to run in her dress. It was easy to trip in.
Stratus, which everyone had forgotten about, followed behind Xander. Stratus was moving too silently for either Sam or Xander to notice. Laina saw Stratus following behind Xander but chose not to say anything. She figured that the Carbo could help them in some way.
Sam and Xander keep their tools close. It was hard to run in the dark while trying not to fall and the tools didn't make it easier. They got caught in branches and bushes.
After they started to run, they couldn't see the light anymore, so they had to go based on their memories. They reached the village, and instead of going in, they went around to the outside.
A little bit later, the men left as they reached close to the path that the thieves were going to take. Everyone spread out to find the thieves. Xander finally noticed Stratus following close behind him and bent down to pet it.
After roughly two minutes passed, everyone could see the light that was coming from the torches. They hid behind trees and bushes and waited.
When the light was only a few feet away, it stopped. The men looked towards the light to see what they were up against. They could see that it was only two men on horses, they jumped out together.