The men set about making a small campsite along the edge of the road. Some of the men took some of the captives into the nearby woods to gather wood to no doubt gather wood. They left the oxen attached to the cart but did tie it off to a nearby tree where it could still graze on whatever it could find amongst the undergrowth of the woods. The remaining men started to pass out and eat food from small barrels and casks that were stowed in the back of the wagon.


    One of the men tossed hunks of some mysterious meat in the direction of the remaining captives from one of the barrels. The captives gagged at the smell, but they slowly consumed the meat doing their best to get everyone to eat. The smell that came from the barrel was strong enough to make Painin gag as well with its foulness. He inwardly cursed the prevailing wind for not blowing the smell in another direction. The captives returned from the woods their arms full of wood for the fire with the other men following behind them holding their ropes. Once they put down their wood, they too were also given some of the mysterious meat from the cask, and their ropes were re-secured once more to the wagon.


    The raiders continued to eat the food and began to drink from some of the other casks as they sat around the fire. Their loud guttural conversation went back and forth, and it seemed that each sentence or point was punctuated by some sort of physical aggression towards each other. The aggressive blows only seemed to grow in force as they continued to drink, and the night progressed. The captives were largely left alone as they huddled behind the cart in a group for protection.


    The other men that had been mounted came back to the camp where they set up a small area of their own a bit away from the wagon group. One of the mounted men took a burning brand from the fire and returned to the area quickly getting their fire going and one of the men went about placing chunks of meat to cook over the fire.


    One of the men rose on unsteady legs and stood at the edge of the woods and relieved himself noisily into the underbrush and punctuated it with a large belch and fart combination which got him cheers and jeers from the group. He yelled something at them in their language before stumbling back towards his place near the fire.


    Painin sat back within the woods as far as he could and still maintain a watch on the whole group. He had smeared his face with a thin coating of mud to better help him to blend into the woods as his father had taught him. A lump formed in his throat at the thought of his father but Painin fought to keep it down as he would not allow himself to cry. The group had not been hard to follow with their rather slow pace down the road but Painin was covered in a fair number of scrapes and bruises, but he didn’t feel them as his sole focus was directed at the group behind the wagon, and to Kobi in particular. She didn’t seem to be hurt that he could see but her face had a distant far away look to it.


    As it grew darker and the camp began to settle down Painin began to edge closer to the edge of the woods until he was just outside the ring of light. The captives were all laying down except for Kobi who was sitting up where she had been sitting since they stopped just staring straight ahead. He hadn’t heard or seen her say anything except to release a blood-curdling scream when one of the other male captives touched her after she stumbled. The man quickly backed up and continued to keep his distance from her since.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    He slipped around the back of the group coming to the captives and set about cutting through the ropes that secured them to the wagon with his belt knife. He was surprised by the man who walked around the edge of the wagon as he was of the boy cutting through the rope of their captives. The man quickly regained his composure and began to draw his weapon when Painin found himself knocked aside as Kobi shot past him. Grabbing the knife from Painin she lunged at the man and dug the blade into his groin and the yell of alarm became a cry of pain. His attempt to get his weapon now became an attempt to keep his blood inside of his body as Kobi stabbed again and again with the blade which flashed in the light. The man fell back trying in vain to keep her from attacking again and again and soon they both were covered in blood.


    Painin stood by in shock as she leaped at the man again who had landed in a heap before beginning to plunge the knife down into the body repeatedly. She screamed as she raised and lowered the knife like some primal animal and continued to rain down blows. Painin realized the man was no longer moving and leaned into her and yelled “We have to go!”


    The camp of men came to life around them as the captives now broken free from the trance of the scene before them began to run off towards the woods and were chased by their former captors. Painin reached out and grabbed Kobi by the shoulder to try to force her up but was taken aback as she screamed at him and he quickly removed his hand. “We have to get out of here!”


    She blinked and stood up and started to run away towards the woods the length of rope. Painin pulled his knife free of the now-dead man’s chest before following her. They seemed to run forever and to be honest Painin wasn’t exactly sure how long the men gave chase and instead focused on keeping up with Kobi. Finally, he managed to catch up to her and get her to stop running and they slowed to a more manageable speed. He hoped the other captives had managed to get away from the men but in all the confusion he couldn’t be sure.


    “We should get moving away from here and make our way towards my Uncle towards the North,” Painin said in a low tone.


    Kobi just looked at him vacantly the blood that covered her beginning to dry making her appearance more ghoulish. He moved closer to her and she flinched as he pulled his knife out before he cut through the final bits of rope allowing it to fall away.


    “As long as we stay off the road as much as possible and move through the woods, we should be fine.” He said to convince himself more than Kobi. Painin motioned for her to follow him and they set off moving North through the woods.


    They made sure to keep the road on their left off in the distance as they used the sun''s placement when it peaked out from the clouds to keep them on course. The going was slow through the woods both due to Kobi not being her normal self after being taken by the men and all the earlier rain had not helped to make the travel any easier and they were both soon covered in yet more mud and bruises.


    Painin noticed an opening in the nearby hillside and lead Kobi towards it. A quick check showed the opening to be a small cave that was currently empty of animals though there were signs that it had been home to at least one before. Leaving Kobi at the cave he searched the area and found a small area a little distance from the cave that had a somewhat clear view of the distant road through the trees. A small stream was also nearby, and it at least offered them fresh moving water to drink so that they wouldn’t have to find pooled water from the rainfall of earlier.