When Sam returned to the house, he noticed that it was relatively empty. The horse was still here, tied to a part of the wall.
He closed the door behind him and locked it. Sam looked at the horse a little bit. Sam wanted to change his clothes when Laina and Xander weren't home but didn't know how to feel about the animal in the room. It was just a horse, but Sam still hesitated about getting naked.
'Either this or I have to go into the woods,' Sam thought. After he came to that realization, he turned around so that the horse was towards his back.
Sam started to remove his clothing. When he removed everything, he still had the bandage around his leg. The pain had faded, and Sam could barely tell that it was there anymore. He had been using the same bandages for a few days now, and he hadn't taken them out. Sam knew that that wasn't the greatest idea, but there was nothing that he could clean the bandages with. When they reached the river, Sam didn't get a chance to clean up.
He unwrapped the bandages that were a faint red with dried blood. He felt his leg, and he could feel the three faint lines where the Carbo had sunk its claws into. He would probably have those scars for the rest of his life. Sam could see that his wounds had all closed. In a few days, he wouldn't know the difference between his right to his left leg.
Sam piled up all of his worn close to one side and started to wear the new ones. As soon as they were on, Sam knew that he made a good decision. He felt warmer, lighter, and most importantly cleaner. His body still had dirt all over but now, it was only his skin that was dirty. He could always just take a bath later to solve that problem.
The clothes fit perfectly. It looked like Sam had an eye for body sizes.
Sam's shoes were still the same as before, but they were in a lot better condition. Sam did step on mud, poop, and other things while in the forest, but he always made sure to scrape them all off. He didn't want to slip and fall just because his shoes couldn't get traction.
Sam waited for a few minutes to see if either Laina or Xander would come back soon. When there was still no one, Sam started to get bored. He could only stare at a horse for a few minutes before he started to get tired of it.
Sam went to the bedside and laid down. He decided to catch up on some sleep that he missed last night. It took Sam a few minutes before he started to feel sleepy, but eventually, he was no longer awake.
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Xander and Laina spent nearly two hours just watching the lake. Most of the time, they started silent, focusing on themselves. They both were emotionally unbalanced at the start but, as time went on, they were able to settle all of their feelings and thoughts.
"Do you want to head back now?" asked Laina. They had been sitting here for too long, and she didn't want to make Sam any more worried.
"Sure," said Xander as he got up. "I wonder what Sam is thinking right now. He must think that we got kidnaped or murdered."
As Xander said that, he and Laina started to feel guilty about staying here for so long. They must have made Sam so panicked.
They started to quickly walk towards the village and Stratus followed behind them. While Xander and Laina were having an emotional breakdown, Stratus was having lots of fun playing around in the trees. He dug up worms and rocks of different shapes and sizes, he tried to climb a tree, and he even tried to catch fish in the lake.
Laina stopped in front of her house and tried to open the door. She was surprised to find that it was locked from the inside. She banged on the door and waited for it to open. After a few moments, Sam opened the door and let everyone in.
"Welcome back," said Sam as he rubbed his eyes.
"Thanks. Were you worried when we were gone?" asked Laina as she walked in. Sam looked like he had been sleeping the entire time, and he looked a little bit annoyed. She could tell from Sam's face that that was not the case, but she decided to ask anyway.
"Worried? Why would I be worried? The only thing that I was worried about was that you'd come back too soon and I wouldn't get enough sleep," said Sam. He had been a little worried about them, but he wasn't going to admit it.
Xander and Stratus entered the house, and Sam closed the door behind them. Seeing that Sam and Laina were just standing around, Xander asked, "Are we good to go at the end of today?"
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"Everythings finished on my side. I sold everything and already got the coins for them. I left a little bit of food for us so that we can eat on our trip. I'm fine with leaving now if you guys are good," said Laina. She looked at Sam, waiting for a reply.
Sam looked at the ground for a few seconds to think. They did not necessarily need anything other than the food. If something did come up, they could always just buy in another village. Right before he was about to say something, Sam remembered about the horse.
"We have to do something about the horse," said Sam. "If the people that wrote the note, see the horse, we're not going to be in a good position."
Just thinking about the reward for the job, Sam could figure out that the person that wrote it just be a person that had a lot of influence. He didn't want someone like that on their tail. There was a fairly large chance that that person wouldn't care about it, but, from the letter, it could be seen that whoever wrote it, would be in massive trouble if word got out.
"Can we just sell it to one of the other villagers?" asked Xander.
Laina shook her head, "There's no one in this village rich enough to buy one, and even if they did have the money, for a farmer, horses are useless. If we were to sell the horse to one of the villagers, we would be losing out on a lot of money."
Sam understood the value of the horse, but there was one thing that he couldn't understand. "Yesterday, why didn't the six villagers try to take this horse as well. They already took one of them and could have tried to take the horse from us."
Laina's response came quickly, "It's because you killed him with just the two of you. Traditionally, when people are killed, everything on them belongs to the person that killed them. The horse was considered his belonging, so the other men stayed away from it since it wasn't theirs to take."
Sam nodded his head. Now that was cleared up, it was time to decide what to do with the horse. They could play it safe and sell it now or be risky and take it with them.
"How long is it from here to Carthage," asked Sam. He was trying to figure out how much time he had. Most likely, the person that wrote the letter was in Carthage. If it was far enough away, Sam would take the horse and sell it in one of the villages on the way.
"If you're walking, around five days, but if you're going as fast as possible on a horse without stopping, less than a day," said Laina. She knew this from the top of her head since she asked others to figure out when her father would come back.
Sam did a few simple calculations in his mind. If people were coming here straight here on horses, it would take them around two to three days since they had to let their horses rest. If Sam, Xander, and Laina started to leave now, they would reach the next village by the end of the day. It would be relatively safe to take the horse to the next village.
The next village was bigger, so some people had more money than the people of this village. They might not be able to get a full profit on the horse, but they could make more money for it, at the very least.
"Alright, we can take the horse to the next village over and sell it here. And since we're ready to go, we can leave right now." Sam finalized his plan and told it to Xander and Laina.
It took a few moments for Laina to get everything finished. She took a bag and poured the contents of one of the barrels into it. After she was finished, the bag had enough grain for them to eat for ten days or so. She then dug up a part of the floor and took the pouch that lay there hidden. From the sound of metal hitting metal, it was obvious that it was a bag of coins. She tied to her waist, where there was another bag of coins.
She was taking a lot of money, but she didn't have another choice. She didn't know when if ever she came back and if she left them here, they could be found by someone else.
Sam untied the horse and walked out with it. None of them knew how to ride a horse, so they would have to walk it the entire way. Sam wished that when he went to Origin yesterday, he looked at how to ride a horse. If he did that, this journey would have been a tad bit easier.
Laina closed the door of the house and took the lead. She went towards the southeast of the village, and there, after the village end, was a path. After people had walked on it for a long time, the path was clear of any tree, bushes, or rocks. It was wide enough for Xander, Laina, Sam, and the horse to walk side by side.
Laina paused as she was walking, she turned around to face the village and closed her eyes. She was leaving the village that she spends her entire life in. She was going places, she only ever heard about. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and walked quickly to catch up to Sam and Xander.
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Laker had finally started the journey to the village. It had taken a while to get the word out that the job was done and the different scouts needed to come back to Carthage. He had to speak to several of his friends to make sure that everyone got the message.
While he was doing all of his, he failed to notice that he was being followed. It was just one person and their only goal was to report back to the captain when Laker left Carthage.
As Laker left behind the houses on the outskirts of Carthage, his follower, ran straight back to his captain.
The captain had been preparing as well. He called four of his best men and told them to prepare. By the time, the follower had reported that Laker left, he and his four men all had their iron chest plates and helmets and were ready while being on their horses. To their sides, was a long and sharp sword, and behind them was a bow and a full quiver of arrows.
Although his master hadn't said it out loud, the captain knew that there was a possibility that the entire village needed to be wiped out. They couldn't take any more men since the Lord would notice, so the captain wanted to be as prepared as possible.