As they went to bed, Lucas started to count. When he got to a thousand, he decided that it was time. The ropes weren’t fully cut yet due to Lilly interrupting him by sitting behind him. He slowly continued with the knife he had hidden in his sleeve. Eventually the ropes broke and he got up, making sure not to make a sound. As he looked at the two girls sleeping, he shook his head. “Beautifull or not, stupid all together.” He then turned to the exit, slowly making his way out of his house.

After climbing out, he took a deep breath, feeling a bit weird about it. It dawned quickly on him that they had ripped off the vines. This made him groan as it had taken him a while to put up. Looking back inside to where they were asleep made him feel bad again. Just because he was resistant to them when they questioned him, didn’t mean that he also didn’t care. To him death and life was just a state of a being. Suffering it what made him more compassionate and they had suffered quite a lot of fear, even though they didn’t show it. He walked to the other side of the tree, getting some help of the little moonlight. After looking for a while, he would find what he was looking for. He grabbed a rope and started to climb up the tree. There was a hidden path that he had created over the months that he lived here. It wasn’t anything fancy but it was functional.

High up in the tree was a platform with on the platform multiple chests. The last owner of that hole had put all the chests onto the platform for more space. It had taken him a while to discover it and accidentally stumbled onto the rope. As he sat down in front of a chest, he let his fingers run over a small sigil that had been inscribed. He didn’t know what it meant. As he did that, he thought about the previous owner. He had found him dead in his own house. A skeleton with clothes. Lucas had given him the name Frank. Later that same day he had buried Frank with the shovel that was also in said house. The platform he was on had been camouflaged. But then there was the problem of rain. The chest wouldn’t stay good for long so there had been a slope roof to protecting it. This wasn’t completely effective but good enough.

He opened the first chest. In it he had his food stored. It wasn’t a lot nor was it tasty. Just some old hard bread and some dried jerky. He took the bread and a bunch of jerky which he put on the chest. In the second chest was a backpack. This one he had made himself. It looked very bad put it was just way to carry extra things. Then he skipped some chests. Whatever was in them was not useful to him. In the fifth chest were clothes. All male of course seeing as he lived alone. After grabbing 2 sets of clothing, he closed the chest again, putting the clothes on the bread. In the last chest were little jars and clay pots, a map and more. In them were things like spices. He grabbed a singular one and put it in his bag. The map was poorly made. But that map also went into his backpack. He also grabbed a rope and very small crossbow bolts that looked like oversized toothpicks with hair.

But even then he didn’t have everything he wanted. He didn’t believe that he would be coming back soon so he wanted to make sure that he had everything that he needed in order to make it for a while. Without hesitation, he climbed higher up the tree until he reached a very small hole. In it was a needle and threat, a small waterskin, a second knife he hung on his belt and a couple of fire stone. That was enough for him. He climbed back down to the platform, taking a small basket. There he put his stuff in to let it go down via a rope attached to the basket. As soon as the basket hit the ground, he threw the rest of the rope on the platform before making his way down. All this time he was very silent, barely making any sounds. Not wanting to climb down fully, he jumped the last meter. There he would freeze, thinking to have seen something move right next to the tree. Not sure who or what it was, he stayed still for a while.

When nothing moved, he relaxed and grabbed the basket and rid it of the rope. Still trying to be silent, he snuck to the front of the hole, looking inside for any movement. It was very dark but he thought to see the 2 girls sleep. When climbing inside and reaching the pole, he put down the basket, putting the bread and a bit of jerky in it on top of the clothes. But after standing back up, he froze. Something seemed wrong about the room. The room wasn’t that big so he went over everything. The girls seemed asleep, the chest was still closed and the nail on the pole holding his bow was empty together with the one that should’ve been holding the lantern. Realising that the lantern was gone was so surprising to him that he touched the spot where it should’ve been.

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“Makes some light Emma.” Said Lily. Her bow was aimed straight at Lucas’s head. She was sitting on the bed together with Emma.

“You do remember that we don’t have our fire stones anymore right?” Said Emma as she held the doused lantern.

“What was that about being dumb?” Lily sounded very happy and had a smirk on her face asking that.

Emma would get up, also grabbing her bow. “Oh those girls are so pretty, sleeping naked in my bed. How gullible of them.”

Both of the girls were mocking him and laughing, having fun with his mistake and the fact that he had underestimated them. Before he had been making fun of them so they felt justified to do so. Lucas on the other hand felt that it wasn’t justified as he had been the one tied up. “Are you going to shoot me? Because I don’t think you will and I’ll be leaving whether you like it or not.” He turned around and already walked to the exit.

“I don’t think so.” Replied Lily. We can’t have you walking out as them finding you might kill us. So I won’t hesitate to shoot you if it means that we’ll survive.” She sounded like she really meant it.

He stopped walking to the exit and instead walked to his chest and knelt down and opened it. He grabbed only 2 things out of the chest. It was a little pot and what looked like a miniature crossbow.

“What are you doing?” asked Lilly, being the one aiming the arrow at him.

“I’m just taking my own stuff.” He put both items in his bag as he then got back up. “What does it matter to you?”

“Well… You’re our prisoner and I want to know what you’re doing.”

He just shrugged as he then sat down on the chest. “So what now? How will we continue this because I will not let you tie me down again. And for the love of God, please get dressed.” He said motioning to the basket with the clothes.

“So you do have clothes? You’re a liar.” Said Lily throwing some quick glances to the basket.

He shrugged as he looked at Emma taking the clothes. “I didn’t want you two to find my stuff and steal everything I own.”

Before Emma could put on her clothes, Lily began to feel her arm get heavy. “Emma, could you tie him back up? My arm is getting tired and I would hate to accidentally shoot him.”

Emma got up with the pieces of rope. Due to him cutting it, it was mostly useless. “Give me a second, he cut it up remember?.” She threw the pieces aside and would then look at him, holding out her hand as she waited for him to put the bag in her hand. When opening it, she had seen a rope sitting in it but just barely seeing as it was still very dark in here.

Lucas let out a growl as he took the backpack off and basically threw it at her. His eyes went back to the bow and saw her arm shiver from having to keep the arrow pulled back.

Opening his bag and taking out the rope put a smile on Emma’s face. “Come here lost boy. Let’s get you tied up once more.”

As she tied him back up against the pole, Lucas would be staring dagger at Lily. He had brought her clothes and food and yet they still think that he was the enemy. But Lily saw that he kept staring at the girls. As soon as Emma was done with not only tying up his hands but also his legs, she would lower the bow. Her arm was shivering quite a lot harder now. Not wanting to shoot her sister, she would lower the bow and threw it on the bed.

“Don’t forget about his hidden dagger.” She said to Emma as Lilly walked to the basket. “And while you’re at it, blindfold him.

Lucas yelled at her for doing so. “Don’t you fucking dare! You can’t just do this!”

Emma grabbed a piece of Lucas’s own clothes and cut off a strip using his own dagger. Then she used that strip to blindfold him. As soon as that was done, Lily would go back into the bed. When Emma saw this, she would first look at the clothes but then join her. Lucas wouldn’t be able to watch them anyway so clothes weren’t needed now.