Emma let go of the rope as she took a deep breath. She shivered as she could remember how close she was to falling of the edge. Wanting to have a distraction, she went back to the chest and opened it up, looking inside.

As soon as Lilly was done, she would get up. After throwing a quick glance at Lilly, she would decide to get out of the hole. As she did so, the vines irritated her, getting in her face. Without any patience, she would tear down the vines. Surprisingly, they came down with ease. Once outside, she started to collect the arrows and the bow that he had dropped, bringing it inside together with her sisters bow and arrows.

As Lilly came back inside, Emma just closed the chest, being empty handed. Emma sat down on the chest, thinking of something while Lilly walked to the bed, putting the weapons onto the bed. Seeing as she had been focusing on her sister, she wouldn’t realize that the arrows slid down and fell on the ground. When she finally noticed, it was already too late making her shrug. “Anything useful in the chest? Any food or clothes?”

“Hmmm? What? No not really. There are small pots in the chest but they’re too small to be food.” She looked at the guy they just tied up, tapping her finger on the chest. “You know, we can always take his clothes.”

Lilly looked from Emma to him, starting to chuckle as she shook her head at the idea. “Seeing as there are no clothes in the chest, I doubt that those clothes are fresh.”

Her argument made enough sense for Emma to not mention it anymore, instead looking at Lilly. “We can wait for him to wake up so we can question him? I doubt that he doesn’t need to eat so there has to be food somewhere hidden.” She didn’t sound so sure about that though seeing how small his house was.

She got off the chest and started to push it in front of the guy as there were no chairs in the home. Lilly helped her pretty fast, getting it in front of him before sitting down. Lilly waited to sit down as she want to his bed, grabbing the bedsheets and sniffing it. It didn’t smell bad so she brought it to Emma. As she sat down, she wrapped it around herself and offered the other half to her sister. Emma scooted over and got into the bedsheets as well.

Just as they both got comfortable, the guy made a soft sound, slowly opening his eyes. It took him a bit before he was able to focus his eyes on something, his eyes continuously rolling away. When fully conscious, he felt a sting on the side of his head. As he tried to rub that spot, he realized that he was tied down. Only then did he see the girls in front of him.

It stayed silent for a bit as both parties seemed to look at each other before he started to laugh. It didn’t sound joyful at all. “Great…” He said with obvious sarcasm in his voice. “Tied up in my own home by two naked females.” He shook his head as he looked down at the ground, feeling uncomfortable. During this, both Lilly and Emma stayed silent. “Come one, what do you want from me?”

“Just some information” Said Lilly.

“And you think I’m going to give you that information?”

“Well, we aren’t tied to a pole are we?” Answered Emma with a tone that didn’t tolerate resistance. But that was exactly what he was giving them.

“No you aren’t, but it also looks like you two don’t have clothes.” The guy laughed at his own response.

“Well, we can just take your clothes!”

Lilly had enough of this. “Stop!” This way we go nowhere. We need your help or information and you need us to let you free. So how about this, we ask you a question and you can ask us a question?”

Now the guy stayed silent for a bit. He looked at them both before letting out a long sigh. “Not like I’m going to get a better deal.”

“First question.” Said Lilly as she thought about it. “Let’s start easy. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Hey! Those are two questions!” Yelling that went together with him starting to try and get free. His hands trying to untie the knot. As that wasn’t so fruitful, he realized that they had been looking at him without any smile. “Okay fine… I’m Lucas and I live here if that isn’t obvious.”

He was about to ask them his question when Emma kicked him in the leg. “And now the truth peasant.”

“First of all, what kind of insult is that, secondly, how do you know whether it is the truth or not?” The kick didn’t really hurt so he decided to ignore it for now.

“Mmm” Emma shrugged and closed her eyes. She didn’t really have a reason to not believe him. She just wanted to seem smart which didn’t really work.

“Anyway, my question is going to be the same. Who are you and what are you doing here? Seeing that you two are almost identical I can figure out that you’re twins so perhaps your answer will be more helpful to me.”

When they asked his question, it seemed normal to them. When he asked them for their name, they were rather confused and gave each other quick looks of confusion. Emma was the most confused as Lilly was the one that had talked to him earlier. “I could’ve seen this coming. If he knew who I was and wasn’t hunting us then he wouldn’t have aimed his bow at me like that.”

Lucas saw their confusion and wasn’t sure what to say at first. “Seeing that reaction you two must be rather well known. You were hunted as well so I would guess rich. I’m going with two daughters of a well-known baron.”

Emma was the one that would answer his question. Of the both of them, she was a bit more high on her horse. “We are Lilly and Emma Cantervere. We are the rightful heirs to the throne of the Human Gruge. That makes us your superiors.”

Lucas shook his head as he had a smile on his face. “My superiors? I think not. I haven’t gotten a superior in a year or so. I told you that I live here in peace and quiet, unbothered by any tasks given by anyone that calls me their underling. By the way, what was that? A Gruge? Never heard of it.”

Now the girl were even more confused. “How do you not know what that is? How long have you been living here?” Emma seemed to not understand. This human was not making any sense.

Lucas didn’t answer right away. He looked at a wall as he thought about it. “I’m not so sure… About a year? The exact same time that I stopped taking orders.” He focused back onto the girls.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“And where do you come from then if you are not from the human Gruge?”

“Let’s just say that I’m not from this world. I’m not sure where I am. I just know that where I’m from, there weren’t any centaurs or satyrs. As soon as I noticed that I was on another planet, I decided to hide. Now can I finally know what a Gruge is?”

As they looked at him, they were still skeptical. “Like we have to believe that. You from another planet.” Emma wanted to continue talking but Lilly gave her a push with her elbow.

Lilly wanted to keep thing at peace for now and decided to answer his question. “So… A Gruge is a sort of group. Me and Emma are from the Human Gruge. There are others like the Skeleton Gruge, Zombie Gruge even a Cloud Gruge where wizards live. Although they don’t like to take part in ‘earthly affairs.’” She said that last part in a mocking tone. “They keep to themselves is what I’m trying to say and we can’t reach them due to them living in the clouds if that wasn’t obvious yet.”

Lucas nodded as he understood. It was weird to the girls that he just accepted it like that, as if he had experience. But still Lucas wasn’t believing them. “So let me get this right. The princesses of the Human Gruge decided to come and play into my forest all naked?”

Emma nodded as it indeed sounded a bit extreme. Sadly for them it wasn’t a lie. “We were on our way for a diplomatic missions. But apparently not everyone wanted our mission to succeed. We were swimming in a lake while our camp was attacked. Our bodyguards kept the centaurs busy for a while so we could get away. But… they all died while we grabbed the little things we had and ran for our lives. I managed to get my bow while Lilly was out the water later. I didn’t know where she had put her weapon so she left without hers. Luckily our servants hadn’t taken the saddles of our horses yet. So before you ask, the ones chasing us were also centaurs.”

This information shut Lucas up for a couple of seconds. His eyes wandered down to the ground as he repeated the information in his head. Eventually he looked back up. “So nobody here is a bad guy. How about you untie me then?

“No!” Said both Lilly and Emma without hesitation.

This only cause Lucas to sigh as he shook his head. “And why won’t you untie me?”

“You honestly think that we believe your other planet story?” Asked Emma as she didn’t believe a single word of what has been said by Lucas.

“And you two think that I have to accept without hesitation that I’m being held hostage by two naked whores in my own home?” At this point Lucas had lost his patience. He had done what they wanted but they didn’t let him go. He had nothing to do with their assassination attempt. But his insult did seem to create a reaction.

“Excuse us!? It’s your majesty! And second of all, our father is your king!” Yelled Lilly frustrated. These princesses didn’t seem to encounter someone insulting them too often. They both seemed red in anger as they looked at him.

“In this land I don’t have a king, let alone a country to call home!” Yelled Lucas back at her. And secondly, his daughters of 16 years old are standing in my home yelling at me while being naked!”

Emma got up and slapped him in the face. It was a hard and loud one as Lucas his head turned with the slap. His cheek quickly turned red. “We demand respect. And to be clear, we aren’t 16 but 19!”

Due to the power of the slap, his face was forced to the side. He remained looking to his right for a second before moving with his mouth to test it. Nothing seemed wrong so he slowly looked back at them. “Congrats… That means I’m still superior in age.” He didn’t take the disrespect though, getting angry as he didn’t accept the smack. “And if you two really were in danger then you probably need to be more quiet!” From that point on he just started to yell every word. “Because if they find me, then at least I won’t be in danger because I’m not on the run for some half-horses! And if you forgot it! We’re next to the road where they saw one of your horses take a dive! Where do you think they’ll turn back to after they capture your other horse and see that it’s empty!?”

Emma was barely listening to what he was saying, about to yell back when Lilly grabbed her arm. “He’s right” Is what she said in a very soft and barely audible tone. “We shouldn’t be yelling so much.”

Emma on the other hand was still angry and looked at Lucas for a second before looking back at her sister. “I don’t care. You do realize that he has been cutting the ropes ever since we started to talk to him right?” She said this in the same soft voice, making sure Lucas couldn’t hear her.

That is what took Lilly’s attention. She looked past Emma to Lucas. From this spot she couldn’t see the ropes but she didn’t need to. She believed her sister. She would then tug on Emma’s arm as she got off the chest, letting go of the bedsheets so she was naked again, walking outside as she motioned for Emma to follow.

Not wanting to parade nude like Lilly, she would wrap the bedsheets closer around herself, following her. When outside, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be light for much longer.

Lilly had picked up an arrow that she had missed the first time that she collected his arrows. “How about we ask a couple more questions and then act like we go to sleep. If he tries anything, we can just shoot him. You ask some questions and keep the bow ready underneath the bedsheet. Whenever he attack, you shoot him. In the meantime I’ll be checking out his bow and keep an eye on him from behind.”

Emma was still angry and needed a bit to cool down. After taking a couple of deep breaths, she would nod and look back at the entrance. She remembered having dropped her bow and quiver before after the event. She started to look for them on the ground, not seeing them.

“I took them inside when I grabbed his bow. Go in first to grab it and I’ll come after.”

Emma nodded slowly before looking back inside. From here she could see him sitting there. “Don’t take too long.”

Having said that, she went back inside, walking past him to the bed to grab her weapons and hiding it before going to sit back on his chest I front of him. Not much later, Lilly came in as well. Getting a quick glance from Lucas due to her still being nude when going past him before being outside of his view. When at the bed she realized the arrows had fallen on the ground. Not really paying too much attention to it, she just grabbed one and put it on his bow, aiming at Lucas but not pulling the string back. From here she could see the rope easily and he didn’t seem to have a knife. But even in the dark she could see that some ropes were cut.

Lucas decided to make Emma more mad due to her being the only one to react to his jabs. “Maybe you royal highness could get off my chest with her royal bottom.”

This caused Emma to get red in the face but she managed to keep her cool although her hitting him wasn’t completely out of the picture. She was very much capable to do it again. “Do you by any chance have some extra clothes or food?”

“Does it look like I have extra food or clothes?” He asked in return as he knew that they had already looked through his home.

“It’s just a simple yes or no question.” Said Emma acting like he was dumb for not understanding the concept.

“No!”

“So you always live in those weird looking clothes? I don’t believe that at all.”

“Not everyone can afford more than a hole in the ground with only a couple of things.”

“Why are you so hostile towards us.” Asked Lily who was starting to get tired of the constant hostility.

This time it was Lucas his turn to look surprised.” You mean outside of the fact that you knocked me unconscious, tied me down in my own house, robbed me, hit me because I didn’t show two good looking robbers respect?” But after saying that last part, he shut up and looked away, shaking his head slowly.

“So that is how you think about us.” Said Emma with a bit of amusement in her voice.

Lucas didn’t react anymore though. It dawned to Lilly that he was embarrassed and he was probably done for the evening. “ I don’t think he’s going to talk much more if I have to be honest. Maybe it’s better that we continue later.”

It also helped that it was getting too dark to be able to see much anyway. The further the sun set the faster it went thanks to the trees and bushes.

Even though he had managed to make Emma upset, she was still smiling when she got up and walked to the bed. Now that they both were next to the bed, it was obvious that the bed wasn’t really made to support more than one person. Not that it stopped them from trying. Lilly got in first, followed by Emma. Both had their bows ready underneath the sheets as neither of them planned on sleeping, just watching Lucas who was with his back to the bed.