Somewhere in the woods there was a big tree. Not that unusual for the woods. What made this tree stand out from the other was that underneath the tree, between the roots, someone had made a home for himself. Due to some heavy winds, the tree had been de-rooted for a bit, causing it to have formed a hole underneath. The person now living there had made it bigger, covering up the entrance with some vines in order to make it less obvious. Inside of the hole wasn’t much to brag about either. There was small bed, a chest and a pole in the middle of the room with on the pole nothing but an oil lantern, a bow and a quiver with arrows.

Not that far from the tree through the thick and plenty bushes was a dirt road. The only thing keeping the clearing and the tree from anyone passing by. On the other side of the road was nothing. A great deep fall down to some rocks, spelling the end of anyone not too careful about their movements.

Over the entire width road was a small almost invisible tripwire. It was a rather long rope, leading all the way towards the hole under the tree. The wire was attached onto a singular bell hanging right above the bed, there to wake up the homeowner sleeping in the bed. Unfortunately for him, his sleep wasn’t going to last much longer.

A bit down the road around a corner, two horses were galloping, approaching fast. A bit further behind them were what looked like two more horses, going as fast if not faster than the ones they were chasing. As the first pair turned the corner and continued to run, the tripwire got triggered, tugging on the bell. Unfortunately for the horse and their rider, the tripwire was made poorly and tugged on the leg of the horse.

Underneath the tree, the bell started to ring. The guy in bed woke up fast, rolling out of bed onto the ground. He wasn’t fully awake yet, groaning and looking around. It took him a second before he got up and grabbed his bow and arrows, getting outside the tree.

On the road, the horse that had been tripped was the one next to the ledge. The horse started to neigh as they fell down with the rider getting thrown off. She yelled together with the horse as she was barely able to miss the ledge. Unfortunately for her, the horse felt a bit too far to the side, disappearing in the depth. On the other horse was also a woman. She jumped down, grabbing what little she could in the small amount of time that they had. It wasn’t going to last long before their pursuers would appear from around the corner.

“Get up fast!” It didn’t appear like she was too concerned about her companion for now, giving the horse a hit on his behind.

The horse let out a neigh as well as it started to run again, going down the path without a rider now. The woman that hit it quickly knelt down, grabbing the other one and pulling her up and to the side of the road, into the bushes.

Behind those bushes in the clearing was standing the man from the tree. He had heard the commotion but didn’t know what had transpired. He had an idea but nothing more than an educated guess. Hearing the two people in the bush in front of him, he would grab an arrow out of the quiver. He wasn’t that experienced with it, almost dropping the arrow from the stress.

Just as he managed to put the arrow on the string, he froze as another pair of horses came closer. The horses stopped right next to where the first horse had plummeted into the depth.

“One of them fell down.”

The voice came from a man who sounded out of breath. As the other person said something, it was clear that the pursuers were both male.

“Leave her. If she fell down then she’s as good as dead. We need to catch the other one before we lose her.” Without waiting for a reaction, he went back onto the chase.

The other man quickly following in his tracks. “She won’t get far! Her horse is too tired to keep it up for much longer!”

As they left to pursue the horse, nobody made a sound. The girls in the bush stayed silent and so did the guy with the bow. After what felt like a minute, movement could be heard in the bushes. One of them seemed to stand up to look and see if the men on the horses had left. That was the cue of the bow wielder to start talking.

“Thank Pan that they kept following the horse.” Said the first person. “I wasn’t sure if it was the right idea but I didn’t see another way out.”

The other person took a bit to answer, panting and seemingly still on the ground after being pulled in. “T-That was a good move. I wonder what caused my horse to fall.”

“Hmm… That’s a good question. In any case, get up, we need to get moving before they catch the horse.”

It once again stayed quiet for a bit outside of one of them grunting. It wasn’t clear if it was the on standing up or if it was the other one helping the other person on her feet.

As soon as the one on the ground found her footing, she let out a deep sigh. “Damn it! That stupid horse took my bow and snacks with him down that ravine!”

The guy with the bow took a deep breath, lifting up the bow as he aimed the arrow at the bush. He started to talk before the other one could, wanting to get this moment over with so his heart could finally ease up. “You two in there, come out with your hands up!” He was speaking rather loud but with a soft tone seeing as he didn’t understand the situation fully. Sadly enough for him, the bushes were thick and plenty, giving him no vision on the people he was trying intimidate.

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Both of them went silent fast, both of their movement having come to a full stop. It took for a bit for one of them to start moving again. A rather young woman came into his view. She had brown hair and was fully naked.

Expecting the man in front of her to be shocked with her nude body, she was rather surprised to see that it didn’t faze him in the slightest. She didn’t did what he demanded though, holding her bow and a quiver in her hands.

As he didn’t see her friend appear, he wouldn’t stop pointing the bow are her, waiting for the second person. Neither of them spoke a word as he was getting more and more nervous about the situation. “Where’s your friend then? And put your hands in the air.”

This demand made her grin. She could see that he was getting nervous as he started to dance from one foot onto the other. With her bowhand, she took an arrow out off the quiver before dropping it, putting it with ease onto the bow but not aiming it at him just yet. “And why would I do that?”

Seeing the threat but not wanting to kill anyone, he would give her his full attention, exactly what she wanted from him. His full attention as her companion used the bushes to sneak around the clearing to get behind him.

Just as he was about to answer her, a loud crack could be heard to his left. For just a split second, he looked to the left. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the first girl coming forwards. He quickly took a step back, looking back at her. “Where’s your friend?”

The girl looked behind her towards the bush that she just came out of and then back at him. “Not sure, I could swear that she was right behind me. Lily, come out before mister nervous here decides that the string becomes too heavy for him to keep pulled back.”

No answer came as her words entered his mind. She wasn’t wrong about the string getting too heavy. Keeping it pulled back like this for this long was exhausting. His arm started to ache as if to beg him to let go. Not wanting to accidentally kill her either, he would slowly let the string come forwards, still keeping the bow raised.

“That’s better don’t you think? How about this, you stop pointing your arrow at me because if you don’t then you might get executed.” She said this with a big grin on her face, playing with the feather of the arrow on her bow.

That only confused him. He knew enough about the Gruges to know that human private executions weren’t allowed. “And who might you be then that you can just order an execution?”

His question remained unanswered as she looked behind herself towards the bush and the road behind it, trying to listen. After a couple of seconds she focused back on him, lifting up her bow and drawing the arrow back with a certain grace, one that her opponent didn’t seem to have.

He didn’t like this one bit though, quickly drawing the arrow back and aiming at her once more. “Lower your…!”

Before he could finish the sentence, he felt a sting on the side of his head. The sting went to his brain as his vision quickly started to fade. He fell down like a sack of potatoes, letting go of the arrow.

He had been hit in the head by the second girl. It wasn’t a heavy hit but the place that she hit him was rather well chosen, causing a quick knock out. The arrow that he had been holding back flew towards her friend, almost hitting her.

She let out a yelp, quickly ducking out of the way, not that she needed to. This caused her friend to quickly run to her. “Hey! Are you alright?”

With a shiver in her body, she would slowly look up, nodding slowly. “Yeah… I’m alright…”

As it happened to be, both were naked for some reason. As they gave each other a hug, they looked up at the person on the ground. He was nothing impressive. He was almost as big as them and not that much older it seemed like. His blond hair was on the shorter side which wasn’t uncommon.

Seeing as he didn’t immediately shoot them, it was obvious to them that he was a third party, someone not included in their affairs. “What shall we do with him?” As the one that had hit him who’s name was revealed by the other one being Lily. Lily looked at her friend who looked almost identical to her.

“Not sure sis. Perhaps we should leave him here?” She looked around the area, hoping to see any clue to why he would be here.

“There.” Lily pointed towards the tree where the custom vines were still pushed to the side after the guy had barged through them. “My guess is that he lives here.”

“Looks like you hit the nail on the head. Grab his arm and we drag him to the tree. Perhaps we can find something to tie him up.”

“Do you think he has food?” Lily sounded rather hopeful.

“Is that really your main concern? Food?”

Lily’s sister shook her head as she grabbed one arm, waiting for Lily to do the same. As they started to pull, Lily would look a bit closer to him. “Look Emma, what the hell is… he wearing.” She had to take a break in between the sentence in order to breathe.

As they pulled him towards the hole which wasn’t too far, Emma would look closer as well. His clothes were weird, something she had never seen before. Keeping that mystery for another time, she threw him in, letting out sigh. “I don’t know… Must be something very exotic.”

Having pulled an unconscious man over the ground cause the quiver to be emptied over the forest ground and his bow to be left outside. For now they didn’t give that a second thought and instead went inside after him. They gave his humble abode a look of disappointment.

“What a sad way to live.” Said Lily, walking to the bel over the bell, flicking it with her finger before turning around to look at her sister.

The only light was coming from the entrance. Light that was slowly getting more dim as it was late in the day. For now there was enough light for them to see. The pole in the middle seemed to be stable but not helping with keeping up the tree as the tree had stabilized on his own. Emma walked over to the chest, opening it up. In the chest was a big assortment of items but for now the one she was most interested in was a rope.

“Hahaa! Lets wrap us up a gentlemen.” She said with a chuckle, walking over to him and kneeling down. “Gimme a hand pretty please.”

Lily jumped up, walking over to her and putting him in a sitting position against the pole as they started to tie him up. They seemed to be rather alright for just having been hunted for their lives. Neither of them showing any signs of stress or despair. That didn’t take long as when Emma went to tie the knot, she couldn’t do it and failed quite often. When Lily came over to help, she saw her hands shake.

She softly put her hands on the rope and took away the ends from her sister. “Hey hey… take it easy okay? Let me make the knot. Take a deep breath.”