The silent Ironwood titans overhead had never felt as oppressive as they did at that moment as Chess and the others fled. It was everything that Chess could do just to breathe. The rain increased to a pounding drone and Chess cursed as she slipped on a root, falling on her ass. Ashley was tight on Steven's heels, and Chess swore, rolling to her feet and trying to catch back up.
Steven froze in his tracks slowly raising a closed fist before waving back and forth indicating they should all find cover.
Chess dove into a nearby bush and Ashley took one a few yards to her left. She held a finger to her lips while looking at her daughter and Ash rolled her eyes in response, digging herself a burrow in the loam.
Chess hummed a low droning tune to make their bushes denser and to grow a rough field of thorns between them and the voices she could hear ahead. She moved on, growing thorns around the other hiding places as she listened, trying to keep her voice hidden within the pounding of the rain.
“Sounds like we’re late to the party,” A man said in a deep baritone not too far ahead punctuated by the crunch of branches underfoot. Chess heard the whinny of a horse and looked over noticing the enclosure she’d grown not far off. How did we get here so fast?
She strained to make out what the approaching group was saying over the deluge of rain.
“They left their horses just like you said, My Lord,” one said in a nasal voice. Chess could practically hear the man’s small bow in the way he talked.
“You should never doubt me, Kris,” A confident voice responded, his tone dripping condescension.
“Right you are, My Lord,” Kris responded and Chess mentally cringed at the exchange despite the situation.
The group of bandits remained quiet until they came around the enclosure. Chess suppressed a gasp as they came into view. In the lead of the small troop of eight, was an impressively large man; topping an easy seven feet.
Holy Freya’s tits! She gulped. He looks like all he does is pump iron and eat baby elephants. The most distressing part about the man was that he was pretty, like a male model but with the crazy muscles of a serious roid head. The type that would make some men question their sexuality.
She felt a distressing stirring in her lower abdomen which she suppressed with a mental effort and choked back a mouth of bile caused by the dissonance. Her eyes were so drawn to the sheer presence of the man that it took a moment for her to look at the rest of the group that followed and what they were pushing.
Two women trailed behind the others pushing two huge lion corpses on... air? Chess blinked. They’re fucking floating! They were skating the body of the two lions on a cushion of air. Shit, one of them is a mage. Probably the unnecessarily handsome man. She groaned, trying to make herself smaller by burrowing into the dead leaves further.
Chess recognized one of the men: he was the same man who’d passed Ash and her on the road what felt like months ago.
“Grave,” the man from the road said to the large one; his voice full of caution.
The big man nodded, “I know, Raff, there has to be at least one here,” he paused, a smile spreading on his face. Chess could swear she felt the barest hint of magic moving about the encampment.
“There!” he jerked around making a few rapid hand gestures before pointing straight at Lynn’s hiding place. There was a choked splutter then silence from Lynn’s bush.
“Go pull her out,” the man said with a shake of his head. “No kin can hide from me in this rain. Wet, female, skunk fur,” he repeated the head shake with feigned disgust. Chess found herself holding her breath and had to remind herself to let it out. He can’t hear my breathing over this deluge.
She blinked water from her eyes, brushing a soggy length of hair behind her ears. The lion's bodies had sunk to the ground with Grave’s actions confirming Chess’ suspicion that he was a mage.
Two of the men approached Lynn’s bush and Chess felt a thrill of triumph as both cried out. One hopped backward clutching his injured foot while cursing but the other had the misfortune of tripping and falling to his side onto a patch of 6-inch spikes Chess had grown from a root. He let out a sharp cry before he hit the ground and started gurgling. All the men stared for a moment before carefully approaching the downed man and his companion. Through their cover, Chess could see that the foot of the man who had stepped back was quickly turning crimson.
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The other man let out a choking gurgle when the Lord rolled him over, blood squirting up from his torn neck. The large man tsked in annoyance. He slipped a large knife out of a sheath at his belt and drove it into the man’s forehead with horrifying ease. He then pulled it out and cleaned it on the body with contempt before returning it to its place at his belt. Suddenly the lord looked up sharply, his head swiveling to hover over Lynn’s hiding place.
Chess’s heart dropped even before Lynn’s bush shook. Chess saw Lynn dart out of the cover, making a mad dash away from the men. She quickly made her way around the horse enclosure.
“Fuck, get her you idiots!” The big man, Grave, yelled.
Chess missed what happened next because a prompt filled her vision. She desperately tried to wave it away but it wouldn't be ignored.
Congratulations your Daughter Ashley Pemburtton Stewart is about to Awaken!
What Pyth, Core, or Gem, do you want to give her on this proud day?
Please choose one or nothing.
Thump Pyth
Nil
Amber Core
2 Ranks available
Wooden Gem
3 Ranks available
Summon instrument Pyth
1 Rank available
Inventory Pyth
1 Rank available
Chess desperately thought ‘Amber Core two ranks’ at the prompt but nothing happened. With growing despair, she tried 'two ranks of Amber Core' and it faded. Stupid thing!
Amber Core selected.
Please specify the number of ranks, doses, or percentages.
"The maximum you stupid thing!" Fuck it, she thought, suppressing her annoyance at the system’s timing and her galloping heart.
Chess’ anxiety rose before she forced it back down through sheer force of will.
Once the window dropped, she saw the group busy dealing with Lynn; they hadn’t found the others yet.
Taking in the scene, Chess gasped, almost giving herself away. A man lay unmoving outside the corral, his body covered in large bloody lacerations. Lynn lay nearby, apparently unconscious with Raff leaning over her with a length of narrow cord. He bound her wrists behind her with efficiency.
“Look at her! I’ve never seen such a pretty skunk! I can’t wait to get her to auction. Did you see that shadow magic?” The toady said and actually rubbed his hands together.
What the fuck! Why aren't the men doing anything? Chess angrily wondered, glancing at each of their hiding places in turn.
“Bitch killed Jim!” one of the women cursed and spat at Lynn’s limp form, forcing Raff to take a step back from his work to avoid the projectile. He glared daggers at her.
“Get a collar on her,” the big man sighed before continuing. “Jim had them. Loot the fool and let's get this going. Loot Rich too while you’re at it,” Grave said his gaze sweeping the small encampment and studying the brush. Chess ducked her head when he looked in her direction, not wanting her eyes to give her away. Raff bent over the dead form of Jim and deftly removed a grouping of silver collars tied to his belt with a leather cord. He kicked the body of Rich with a boot and a small Inventory vault popped open and he dumped the contents into a sack he had on his belt.
Faint sounds of battle drifted in over the sound of the pounding rain; metal clashing and men screaming. Much closer than Chess thought they should be. They’re still alive! She thought, some of the tightness in her chest easing.
“Lord Graventy, it sounds like the others are still busy.” The small weaselly man, Kris, said.
“I hear it,” he nodded “We need to hurry and get done while the distraction lasts. Gwen and the others will finish with the lions soon. We’ll split when they get here. If it weren’t for those blasted lions, we could’ve cleaned up Yarrow’s crew as well as that worm Caldur,” he said with annoyance.
“Spread out and kick the bushes, there are bound to be a few more rats hiding here. Watch your bloody step, I smell cat and it’s not the lions,” Graventy added while pacing about with the slow careful steps of a predator, kicking the odd bush aside. The six unoccupied bandits followed his example and spread out; grips tight on their weapons.
Chess’ breath caught and she tightened her grip on her guitar as the small man Kris drew closer to Ashley's bush. She choked and made a grabbing motion when Ash bolted as the man pushed aside part of the bush that hid her.
Her daughter only made it a few frantic steps before he spotted her and lifted a small crossbow. Chess had missed the compact weapon hanging from his belt and with a grace that made the move seem slow, he raised and fired.
As the bolt flew Ash jerked up in a hop, likely from stepping on a thorn, but it didn’t matter in the end: the bolt took her in the upper thigh. She cried out and tumbled headlong narrowly missing a row of spikes and coming to a whimpering halt in a crumpled bundle; her body curled around the missile.
Chess once more found herself completely frozen by the brutal violence, her throat constricting.
She stared at Ashley’s limp sputtering form and felt her world close in on her; blackness narrowing her vision.
“No,” she cursed and started to her feet and stumbled towards Ash, absently dragging her guitar with her.
“Look what we have here,” a voice said nearby but Chess only barely registered it, her gaze only seeing Ashley’s broken form. Slow tears streamed down her face, merging with the soaking rain. “No! Not, again!” She declared in English, her chest tightening.